The 4th European Small Nations Team Chess Championship 2015 was held from 18-25 April, 2015 at Les Cotils, Guernsey.
After 9 exciting rounds, the team of Luxembourg became the new European Small Nations Chess Champion! Having led the week-long tournament at Les Cotils in Guernsey from start to finish, they sealed their triumph with a 3-1 victory over the host nation in Saturday’s final round.
The players from the Grand Duchy – IM Fred Berend, IM Michael Wiedenkeller, Philippe Linster, Pierre Gengler and their Captain, FM Hubert Mossong – have been in dominant form all week, beating eight of their nine competitors for the title and conceding just one solitary tied match to the outgoing champions, the Faroe Islands.
The team of Monaco finished second, while Faroe Islands came third.
Luxembourg players were crowned as European Small Nations Champions 2015 and received coveted silver versions of traditional Guernsey milk cans as commemorative trophies.
Specially produced Guernsey Chess Federation paperweights were awarded to the strongest performer on each board throughout the week. These went to (beginning with Board 1) IM Fred Berend (Luxembourg), IM Michael Wiedenkeller (Luxembourg), Martin Poulsen (Faroe Islands), Jean-Francois Nelis (Monaco) and Karl Johan Ribbegren (Monaco).
Mr. Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu, ECU Deputy President, and Mr. Finnbjorn Vang, ECU Vice President greeted the participants on behalf of the ECU President Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili, and their continuing strong support for the European Small Nations was warmly appreciated.
On Friday, 24th April the Small Nations Meeting was held. Representatives of all 10 nations attended the meeting, as well as Mr. Willy Iclicky, Honorary President of Zone 1.10.
Mr. Paris Klerides, President of Zone 1.10 opened the meeting and gave a brief report on the activities since Tromsø 2014. A very big thank you was sent to the sponsors and organizers and a special thank you to the ECU for keeping its promises and supporting the tournament.
The most important issue on the agenda was the approval of the new statutes.
Mr. Olivier Jeitz reported on preparations for the upcoming Small Nations Individual Championship in 2016.
At the meeting, the European Chess Union was represented by Mr. Ion-Serban Dobronauteanu and Mr. Finnbjorn Vang.